Given the overwhelming success of J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek,” much ado has been made over the sequel, which started production not too long ago. One of the more interesting stories to come out of the flurry of activity surrounding the new film is the casting of rising star Benedict Cumberbatch as the chief villain.

The very busy actor could only express his excitement about the project when MTV News caught up with him at the Golden Globes, but co-star Chris Pine had a little bit more to offer about Cumberbatch’s contributions to the film thus far.

And for those outside of the United States, you can watch the video here: @DailyMotion

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William Shatner was recently a guest at the Wizard World convention in New Orleans the other day. While there, Shatner was asked by a fan if he ever hated Captain Kirk but all the while he was happy to let everyone know was also well aware that the Star Trek sequel is now filming, and he noted that, having been impressed by the work of Chris Pine in Star Trek (2009), Kirk is in good hands.

“He’s a lovely young man, who is really talented and looks really good,” Shatner said, praising Pine. “He’s got the demeanor, the body and the voice. So along with being a good actor, he’s got all the right equipment.”

Chris has been quoted saying that British stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Alice Eve have been settling in well on the set of the Star Trek sequel.

The 31-year-old actor, who plays Captain James T Kirk in JJ Abrams’s film reboot of the classic series, took time out of filming the sci-fi blockbuster to attend the premiere of his latest film, This Means War.

And he revealed that filming so far has been “fantastic”, and that his new co-stars are fitting in well.

Pine commented:

“They’re getting on great. We have a really good, warm, inclusive group from the first one and I think everybody’s kind of getting the hang of things and fitting in quite nicely.”

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According to Trek Movie, the sequel to STAR TREK is set to begin production on January 15, 2012.

Screenwriters Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof are currently at work on the third draft of the script. Benicio Del Toro is reportedly set to star in the highly anticipated film in the role of its villain. Actors Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin and Zoe Saldana are also set to reprise their roles in the movie.

Trek Movie reports that the studio is “very enthusiastic” about the project and very supportive of producer/director J.J. Abrams and his core team.”

Hawaii may serve as one of the locations for the shoot for the film’s fictional “jungle planet”. Other locations may include a museum in Los Angeles and the stages of the Paramount lot.

The film is set to open in theaters in late 2012 or summer 2013.

To read the article in its entirety, click here.

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Star Trek actor Chris Pine has revealed how he hopes to see his character, Captain Kirk grow in Star Trek 2 and how he hopes to see this done. Chris also admitted that he had full faith in everybody associated with the movie to make it happen and work better than he could imagine.

Pine explained, “I don’t know. I look forward to his development and bringing to light all his idiosyncrasies and thinking up new ways to surprise people with this character. I just trust Damon Lindelof and Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman and J.J. Abrams and everybody behind it to create another good story, because they’ve already done it.”

He added, “I appreciate Kirk’s humor and I think that’s a legacy from Shatner’s Kirk, from the original and only Kirk, which I would love to bring into the future incarnation.” Star Trek 2 is expected to be released on August 16, 2012 but this could yet change.

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Attention impatient sequelphiles: Vulture can confirm that J.J. Abrams has finally committed to shooting Star Trek 2. Insiders familiar with the director’s plans tell Vulture that pre-production is underway, that the script will be done by month’s end and that Abrams will start shooting this winter.

While many assumed he would make the follow-up to his 2009 hit, he would never give a date for the project, or actually say for sure that he would be the one directing. In July, reports elsewhere surfaced that Abrams was “moving towards a commitment” to direct the sequel (which, of course, is Internet for “hasn’t committed yet”) but his delay had pushed a nervous Paramount Pictures to give Trek 2′s late June 2012 release date to a G.I. Joe sequel.

Part of the hold-up has been that Alex Kurtzman, who wrote Abrams’ first Trek with Roberto “Bob” Orci, has been busy editing and posting Welcome to People, his directing debut at DreamWorks Pictures. We’re told that now that Kurtzman is finished with those duties, he is back in his office and the team is ready to work. Plug in the Starbucks I.V., lads! These new life-forms and new civilizations aren’t going to seek out themselves!

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Director J.J. Abrams’ latest film, “Super 8,” comes out this Friday, but what about the highly-anticipated sequel to his 2009 take on “Star Trek”? Will it still be released next summer, as planned?

“I’m not so sure, but I know that we’re trying,” Abrams told CNN on Sunday at the press junket for “Super 8.” “We’re working on the script and story and doing everything we can to make it well. I would just so much rather make a movie that’s worth people’s time than make a movie that’s on time.”

The sequel is currently set for a June 29, 2012 release. Abrams has plenty on his plate, including the upcoming TV shows “Person of Interest” and “Alcatraz,” and he reiterated that he wants the next “Star Trek” to be a worthy sequel.

“I’m not inclined to push it. I’m inclined to make a movie that’s good and if it works out in that timetable then we’ll all be thrilled,” he said. “If it doesn’t, when the movie comes out it’ll be worth the wait.”

One can only assume that there will be no appearances by Captain Kirk’s arch-enemy Khan in this “Star Trek 2.”

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Chris Pine, all dreamy intensity and blue, blue eyes, certainly sounds the part while discussing the links between “Star Trek,” in which he starred last year, and “Unstoppable,” his new film with Denzel Washington and Rosario Dawson. ”

“The stories couldn’t be any more different and any more alike,” he says at the Four Seasons in Los Angeles. “The reluctant hero is a story that’s been told for ages and ages, and the reason why we always come back to it is we see reflected in the reluctant hero the worst and best parts of us. They’re faced with that great challenge and the question is: Are they going to take it on or not? Are they going to become the best versions of themselves or not?”

The heroism in question in director Tony Scott’s fifth collaboration with Washington involves a runaway train loaded with tons of hazardous chemicals. Pine’s Will Colson is a rookie conductor on his first day, bristling under the tutelage of three-decade veteran Frank Barnes (Washington) when the pending disaster becomes clear. Frank immediately decides to pursue the runaway with their engine. Will, carrying a freight train’s worth of his own issues, is not sold on the plan.

“Kirk is a selfish little (jerk) in the beginning of ‘Star Trek,’ and he ends up leading men into battle,” Pine says. “It’s a humongous arc from one version to the next, and he’s still growing because we have more films. Will is a selfish, angry, rageful (jerk) and he has to shed that and his foil is Frank, who lets him swing his arms like a tantrum to get it out and become the best version of himself. Those are very similar journeys.”

The Los Angeles native is increasingly becoming known for action roles – he’s signed to play Jack Ryan in that series’ reboot. His next project is the action-comedy “This Means War” with Reese Witherspoon and Tom Hardy.

“Unstoppable” co-star Dawson says people called Pine “Kirk” on the set of their movie. But he asserts with conviction that he was a serious student while pursuing his English degree at UC Berkeley. Perhaps too serious.

“I studied a lot. If I could do college over again, I would probably try to have more fun,” he says, quick to dispel the myth that he walked on to the Cal baseball team. “I played sports all my life, and in a pipe dream, I thought, ‘Yeah, it would be cool to play sports at Berkeley.’ I was a rail-thin, gangly kid; there was no way I was going to be playing sports there.”

He comes from a family of actors, among them his father Robert Pine (a very familiar face with more than 180 credits, including a run on “CHiPs”), and served as a production assistant on Roger Corman’s “Black Scorpion” in his teens.

“I gripped and I gaffed, I was all over the place,” he says. “I locked up sets when we were shooting on location, prevented people from walking into the set. I was awful at that because I was a really nice guy, saying, ‘Please don’t walk …’ People steamrolled right ahead and did whatever they wanted.”

It seems funny for Pine to describe himself as a gangly kid and really nice guy who got blown by, because if people were trying to walk on a set past Will or Captain Kirk …

“Correct. That’s the magic of filmmaking and the greatest part of being an actor and probably why I chose it: You get to be people that you’re not. I’m definitely more interested in those hard-headed, everyday courageous guys – in many ways I’m a more than privileged kid who’s not all that working class. I’ve been very blessed in my life,” he admits.

Will is very much working class, as is the world of the railroads. But it wasn’t the jargon or protocols that stayed with Pine among the things he learned about the job.

“The one thing that every person who worked in a train yard said is, they’ve pretty much all had an experience with death or near-death,” he says. “These are thousands of tons of metal hurtling down the track. Conductors and engineers see people killing themselves all the time: Putting themselves across the tracks, bums who’ve fallen asleep or people who screw up and try to get across the train crossing … it happens a lot. So much so that they have counselors help them get through it.

“It was a shock that seemingly such an innocuous job – you’re transporting grain or coal or cars – that you’d have to deal with that whole other thing that’s traumatic.”

The kid who did not walk on at Cal was blown away to be picked for this team, though, as Washington has said he recommended Pine for the part.

“I heard about that recently. Denzel’s a very gracious guy, keeps things close to his vest and there’s a reason he didn’t tell me, I guess. But it’s so flattering, I can’t even begin to describe it to you. It’s a huge honor,” says Pine, who quickly names as his favorite scene the verbal confrontation between Will and Frank after the rookie makes a major mistake.

“He calls me on my s- and I get really angry about it. I go off on him and he laughs me off, which pisses me off more. I’m all coiled. I can’t land a shot because I have no traction in the scene: I screwed up, period. That was a lot of fun, because that’s sparring with one of the masters, with Bruce Lee or whatever.” {sbox}

Unstoppable (PG-13) opens Friday at Bay Area theaters.

To see a trailer for “Unstoppable,” go to www.unstoppablemovie.com.
Chris Pine
Born: Aug. 26, 1980, Los Angeles

Why we care: He’s Captain Kirk. That “Star Trek” reboot by J.J. Abrams was so great that expectations for the sequel in 2012 are somewhere beyond the Delta Quadrant. He’s going to be the next Jack Ryan, following Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck into the Tom Clancy franchise.

Resume builders: Apart from blockbusters and the forthcoming “This Means War,” Pine has appeared in “Bottle Shock,” “Smokin’ Aces,” “Just My Luck” and “The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.” He got his start on a 2003 episode of “E.R.”

Quotable: On picking up leads in storied franchises: “I don’t know why it’s happened this way, but it just seems to be my journey. … It’s given me great opportunities and the ability to travel and explore and learn. Life is good.”

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Playing an Irish terrorist on a quest to save his cat, Chris told “Extra” that this play is like “being a rock star. It’s two hours, it’s quick, it’s fast.”

Pine is best known for his role as Kirk in “Star Trek,” but the eligible bachelor doesn’t plan on jumping into another sci-fi superhero role anytime soon.

“I don’t think I’d look good in a spandex outfit, to be quite honest with you, so, um, I think Superman is definitely out,” he told “Extra’s” Lauren Sanchez.

Chris didn’t always have the desire to be an actor, and was more drawn to sports while growing up. “I played basketball and baseball. I was no good by any stretch.”

It wasn’t until college that Pine used theater as a way to make friends. “It satisfied everything I enjoyed about using your mind and being in front of people and the charge of that… it was just a good fit for me. Ironically enough, I had been around it all my life.”

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In fact, “Star Trek’s” gung-ho starship commander would probably admire Pine’s “I’ll do it my way” approach to his career.

Pine, 29, is a serious theater actor, and unlike most stage-trained performers who find sudden Hollywood fame, he hasn’t abandoned live performance.

Playing Kirk in last year’s blockbuster movie “Star Trek” has put the handsome Los Angeles native on a career fast track, but he’s still a regular on L.A. stages, too. In 2007 he appeared in Neil LaBute’s “Fat Pig” at the Geffen Playhouse; last year he starred opposite Chris Noth in the tense political drama “Farragut North,” also at the Geffen.

Now Pine will tackle one of British theater’s hottest and most challenging playwrights, Martin McDonagh, in the blood-soaked, pitch-dark 2001 comedy, “The Lieutenant of Inishmore.” It opens July 11 at the Mark Taper Forum.

We talked to Pine recently about “Inishmore,” his love of theater, and his career.

The Orange County Register: Did you see this play before landing the role of Padraic, its dark-hearted leading man?

Christopher Pine: I did not. I was more familiar with McDonagh from his film work, the short he won the Oscar for and “In Bruges,” which I was a huge fan of. From there I discovered his theater work. In college I had done a scene from “The Cripple of Inishmaan.” And I had heard from a lot of my friends in New York about how much they’d enjoyed (“Inishmore”).

Register: How is the violence handled? Is it supposed to be funny and queasy at the same time?

Pine: This show won’t appeal to people who are sensitive to seeing graphic violence. But I would say that there is a reason for all of it. If there’s a theme, it is the inanity of violence. The violence in this case is grossly overdone for a reason. It begets nothing but chaos, death, destruction and depravity. The fact of the matter is that all of the violence in this household is the product of Padraic’s love for his cat. If that doesn’t make you giggle, then I suppose you shouldn’t see this show.

Register: Padraic reminds me of the characters in McDonagh’s film, “In Bruges.” They’re violent thugs, but they have their strict rules of engagement.

Pine: (Padraic) has a definite moral code, but I don’t think there is much logic to it. He believes in the purity of the cause, which is the unification of Ireland as an independent republic. In the beginning he’s torturing a guy because he’s been dealing drugs to kids. If they were Protestants, he’d have no problem with it. But Catholic children should have nothing on their minds except waging violence on the Unionists and Protestants. It’s ridiculous, but he does have a certain moral code, and his adherence to it gives him this crazy extremism

Register: Does Padraic have any saving graces as a character?

Pine: I think in Padraic’s mind there is nothing wrong with what he does. The great thing about this piece is there’s a clear objective from the actor’s point of view. He wants to see Ireland free of the jackbooted villains of England’s monarchy by any means necessary. There’s a certain amount of that enjoyment to the torture in that first scene, but the fact is Padraic believes it has to be done. Once you buy into that, it’s easy to judge him objectively.

Register: Does McDonagh give us any hints about why Padraic became so violent?

Pine: There’s no mention of a mother. He clearly was humiliated and powerless from a young age. His father is as sadistic as him. He’s a real hard, harsh, judgmental, mean old man, and highly super-manipulative. Early on there’s a mention of (Padraic) wearing girly scarves and being made fun of by his cousin. He then lashes out as his cousin, beats him and steals his wheelchair. The scarf could have been from his mom.

Register: How do you compare McDonagh to other playwrights? What are his strengths?

Pine: He’s very cynical, like (Joe) Orton. There’s spectacle and violence, for sure. It’s almost balletic at times, ridiculous in its extremity. I guess if you see it without thinking about it you can watch it and leave and have a really good time. Once you start looking at it, it reveals itself to be really deep; it says a lot about how we view violence. There’s a comment there, too, about the ballet of violence, how beautiful it is and how fun to watch. We’re all waiting for the next gunshot. Violence is a computer game.

Register: How did your life change after “Star Trek”?

Pine: I’ve been really blessed from “Star Trek” to get more opportunities than I had previously in my career. And I just wait for the good material. I’ve been lucky in that I’ve gotten to play on the really big stage with Denzel (Washington) and Tony Scott (Pine will star in the upcoming Scott film “Unstoppable” with Washington). Counter that with these theater productions, which are a whole different thing. I just try to follow what’s good and what interests me and challenges me and makes me think and engages a part of me. It’s so rare to get all of your muscles firing at once. That’s what I look for in any role.

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